The Verdict: As I said, typical TV fare. Not bad, but not great either. Marvel movies on the small screen this ain't. It comes off like a less ambitious version of Heroes. I think we can expect some moderately interesting super-powered characters in street clothes along with a lot of plots and scenarios that fit within a budget but not much else. In the end, it's still part of the Marvel universe, so I'll keep it on in the background.

Now can someone explain the Life Mode; Decoy that was postulated earlier?

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In the Marvel Comics rich people and such have things called "Life Model Decoys" that are essentially robots that fill in for them in dangerous situations/allowing them to be in "two places at once." But they're just machines with no life or "sentience" thought of their own. Tony claims to be one to get out of talking to Coulson in "The Avengers" so it's possible they exist in the MCU.

But, again, they're just robots, not androids that are complete replacements for the person they emulate. This makes me doubt that this Coulson is a surviving LMD unless the MCU is going to treat them differently.

So Trekker, how are we going to do this next week? Continue to use this thread, or should you do a weekly commentary the way we used to with Smallville?

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We'll use this thread for all of Season 1, the mods request TV series threads be consolidated. So every Tuesday I'll just start the new episode's discussion with a post with the episode name/description.

The Verdict: As I said, typical TV fare. Not bad, but not great either. Marvel movies on the small screen this ain't. It comes off like a less ambitious version of Heroes. I think we can expect some moderately interesting super-powered characters in street clothes along with a lot of plots and scenarios that fit within a budget but not much else. In the end, it's still part of the Marvel universe, so I'll keep it on in the background.

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I have to admit, this didn't grab me quite the way the pilot for 'Sleepy Hollow' did, but I loved the dialogue and the references to the MCU. All in all, I think it will be a good ride and I'll definitely be here next Tuesday.

And with one thread, it'll balloon up in no time if the commentary continues.

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If it gets out of hand/too long (and the series lasts) I'll make a second thread for the second part of the season after the Winter Hiatus. But I doubt we'll get too much active discussion unless the series takes off/really reveals something and takes off and if it does episode-specific threads may be called for.

Right now I see no reason to do episode threads.

On the Life Model Decoy:

Reading on them it seems the subject "acts through" the Decoy more than the decoy is independent. One thing of note, one of the "abilities" of the decoy is that it has enhanced agility. Note how Coulson bends over backwards/Neos on his heels to avoid the explosion. It's maybe that Coulson *is* a LMD and maybe the "real" Coulson is in a coma/rendered quadriplegic somewhere in a hospital unaware he's "living" through a LMD.

The Verdict: As I said, typical TV fare. Not bad, but not great either. Marvel movies on the small screen this ain't. It comes off like a less ambitious version of Heroes. I think we can expect some moderately interesting super-powered characters in street clothes along with a lot of plots and scenarios that fit within a budget but not much else. In the end, it's still part of the Marvel universe, so I'll keep it on in the background.

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It's also Whedon, so I suspect the writing won't be worse than first season Heroes for the most part.

I don't really watch much of Whedon, but holy crap was it noticeable that he wrote this. Not that I'm complaining, I feel like that alone could get me through the show. The CSI duo I could probably do without (unless they start becoming far more three dimensional characters), but the others seem to work for the most part. However, if they start going with "hero of the week" plots consistently rather than build a story, I do think the show will start to sag. I also think they need to be a bit careful not to over-rely on the movies (obviously, the Avengers are an important part, but Extremis being the threat at the end there is a bit concerning). The show needs to stand on its own two feet.

Not bad. A lot of fun lines, though I need more time for the characters to grow on me. I'm still not sold on the actors other than Gregg and Wen, and Bennet's delivery annoys me when she's being smug or sarcastic, but I like them better than I did from the clips alone. (Although it feels like I've already seen half of this in previews.)

Mainly I'm struck by how upbeat this all is, and what a generally nice, well-meaning bunch of people these are. It's quite a reversal from the overall arc of Whedon's career, in which each of his shows has gotten progressively further from conventional ideas of good and evil, with a tendency to feature protagonists who were criminals or monsters or otherwise questionable people. My concern is that the premise may be a little too bland to really bring out the best writing in Whedon and his team.

Although there are clearly some secrets in the characters' pasts, notably Coulson's. His explanation of his resurrection is just what I've always thought it would be, but evidently it's not the whole truth, or not the truth at all, judging from the exchange between Maria Hill and Shepherd Book (or whatever he's calling himself these days). I really, really hope he's not a Life Model Decoy. This needs to be the genuine Phil Coulson. I mean, the whole show is a star vehicle for him. How can it not even be him? Besides, they did "lead character finds out he's a robot" on Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, which was not one of their best seasons.

There were a lot of Marvel Universe nods, including one that puzzled me -- did they say the guy Ward took the Chitauri tech from in Paris was called Longshot? Isn't that the X-Men member from Mojoworld? But some of the nods were not very well-handled. Like when Coulson saw the reconstruction of the guy blowing up, he just said "Extremis, it's new" and that was the only explanation we got. The script just assumed that we'd seen Iron Man 3 and thus didn't bother to provide exposition on its own. That's sloppy writing; a story should always be understandable on its own even if it does draw on ideas from other stories.

But the use of Extremis does suggest that A.I.M. is behind the mystery. That could be cool. And it would make sense to use them as villains for this show, since they're not superpowered, they're just evil scientists. Well, except for MODOK, but who knows if they'd dare try to bring him to live action?

One thing of note, one of the "abilities" of the decoy is that it has enhanced agility. Note how Coulson bends over backwards/Neos on his heels to avoid the explosion. It's maybe that Coulson *is* a LMD and maybe the "real" Coulson is in a coma/rendered quadriplegic somewhere in a hospital unaware he's "living" through a LMD.

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Oh, that's an interesting thought.

I did notice that he seemed to reflexively say "It's a magical place" about Tahiti every time it was mentioned. That suggests some kind of conditioned response.